Ralph Shaw ukulele course:
three instructional DVDs

The ukulele is a nice and funny little instrument. With four strings and the little neck it is much more easy to play than the gitar, especially for the youngest ones. You can also bring it with you  in your rucksack.  I have got three instrucion DVDs from one of the worlds most inspiring uke teachers, the Canadian Ralph Shaw.

Norwegian version

Av Per Jakob Skaanes

Ralph Shaw is an experienced uke player who has been traveling in many countries and tought people the noble art of playing ukulele. Now he has made three different DVDs for different levels of uke players.  Before I comment on the different DVDs, I will say that Shaw uses ukuleles that is tuned EACG from 1st to 4th string.

The filming is on the grip board and Shaws left hand when he shows different techniques and chords, and it is on Shaw standing when he explains about the ukulele or just talks about the art of playing the instrument. included with the DVDs, there is a booklet with lyrics and chords to all the songs Shaw sings on the DVDs, and a chord chart.

Uke for the kids

If you are a kid and haven't played any ukulele before, the DVD The complete ukulele course for kids probably will be the right choice. Shaw demonstrates slowly how to tune and play the uke. In the beginning Shaw focuses on simple chords, how to change betveen them and he teaches you some songs that you probably know. After about halv an hour, Shaw focuses on how to make variations on the playing. In the end on the DVD, Shaw show some tricks and effects you can do.  On some of the songs, there are four or five chords to remember. As a help the name of the chord is shown on the right corner at the bottom of the screen. 

The grown up beginner

If you are grown up, and a beginner, The complete ukulele course is better. This is much the same as the uke DVD for kids, but a bit faster in the progression. After Shaw has shown you how to tune the instrument, he demonstrates some basic chords and how to move them up and down the neck. Then you can make new chords just by moving your hands up one fret. He also shows how to play elegant ornaments.  After this you will learn some songs to play on the basic chords. First slowly, then a bit faster. Here Shaw has some suggestions to different ways of playing the rythms.  In the last lesson on this DVD, Shaw shows a finger picking style to play an old English folk melody. Here you see how to play both melody and accompany yourself at the same time. Nice little piece :-) 

Essential Strums

For the advanced ukulele player, the DVD Essential Strums will be a good thing to buy. On this DVD Shaw starts on a higher level and shows different ways to vary the rythm in your play. Shaw plays a lot of styles, reggae, bossa nova, blues, Bo Diddley, waltz and march. In a vary exciting lesson he also shows how to use frailing and clawhammer on the ukulele. It reminds me of bluegrass banjo. An other highlight for me, was a rythm figure called triplet strokes.This DVD will help you play better, and I think it will be more exciting to listen to your accompagnement with these rythms. I is more interessting to listen to my uke after this DVD at least. 

All these three DVDs are very inspiring and have a high quality. I have no doubts when I recommend them for people wanting to learn the art of playing ukulele.

On the homepage to Ralph Shaw, you can order the DVDs, download fre chord chart for the ukulele, see videos from his  DVDs. There are also a lot of good advices here.

Flere musikkomtaler – Omtaler fra før jan 2010

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